WASHINGTON — Kris Bryant is the reigning Most Valuable Player of the National League and put up offensive numbers this year — more walks, fewer strikeouts — that prove he’s not done improving.

At 25, he’s in his third straight postseason, so, unlike the Cubs of yesteryear, this October baseball thing is getting to be old hat for him.

“It eases the nerves a little bit,” he said. “But they’re still all going to be there.”

Bryant, likely one of the more intellectual players on the Cubs, and perhaps in baseball, is smart enough to know what he doesn’t know and that’s how he’ll feel this Friday. Because everything is dependent on what happens after the first pitch is thrown from Stephen Strasburg under the lights of Nationals Park.

We have made the case for why Bryant is again the MVP of the 92-win Cubs. While the stories of the season were about Kyle Schwarber’s spring swoon and mid-summer comeback or the pitching staff’s...